GOP Rep Introduces Legislation to Ensure Your Right to Use Suppressor With Your Gun

This week Representative Jeff Duncan (R-SC) introduced the Hearing Protection Act, which seeks to recognize your right to purchase a suppressor for your firearms. You actually already have that right, it’s just paper that keeps telling government that is none of their business.

Rep. Duncan introduced the bill on Monday, saying, “This legislation is about safety – plain and simple. I’m very active in sport shooting and hunting, and I can’t tell you how better off the shooting sports enthusiasts would be if we had easier access to suppressors to help protect our hearing.”

“I’ve been shooting since I was a young child – beginning with plinking with a .22 rifle and dove hunting with my Dad,” he recalled. “My hearing has been damaged because of gun noise. Had I had access to a suppressor, it may have protected me, as well as millions of other Americans, from this sort of hearing loss. This is a health issue even recognized in Europe. It just doesn’t make any sense to regulate suppressors the way we do presently. I think it certainly is questionable from a constitutional standpoint. It’s striking that even Britain, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the world, has no restrictions on suppressors.”

According to a press release from Rep. Duncan, “The Duncan-Carter Hearing Protection Act will remove suppressors from the scope of the National Firearms Act (NFA), replacing the outdated federal transfer process with an instantaneous National Instant Criminal Background Check (NICS). The bill also includes a provision to refund the $200 transfer tax to applicants who purchase a suppressor after October 22, 2015, which was the original date of introduction.”

“Suppressors do not make guns silent or dangerous, they are simply a form of hearing protection, both for the shooter and their hunting dogs,” said Rep. John Carter. “The Duncan-Carter Hearing Protection Act is common sense legislation that increases safety while shooting, allowing people to easily hear and react to range safety officers and fellow hunters. I am proud to be an original sponsor of this important legislation, and to work with my colleague Rep. Duncan to increase the availability of suppressors to sportsmen.”

Many countries in Europe place no regulations on the purchase, possession, or use of suppressors. What does that tell you America?

It has lots of support from Americans because it is in keeping with the God-given rights they have to keep and bear arms. It also has the support of someone who has the ear of President-elect Donald Trump: the incoming president’s eldest son, Donald Jr.

“It’s a safety issue,” Trump, Jr. said in a September interview, echoing Duncan’s comments.

Gun Owners of America Director of Operations John Velleco said, “Contrary to pop culture myth, a suppressor does not “silence” a weapon. It does, however, decrease the sound level by around 30-35 decibels. In most cases, the noise level would be approximately what the shooter experiences wearing common hearing protection without a suppressor. In other words, while a suppressed shot might not be heard ’round the world,’ it is far from silent.”

Obviously, the Communist gun grabbers are the usual suspects in poisoning the well and outright lying about suppressors.

“Silencers are military-bred accessories that make it easier for criminals to take innocent lives,” said Kristen Rand, Legislative Director of the Violence Policy, in a statement last year.

Vellco points out that Rand just does not know what she is talking about or is lying.

“Though suppressors have been legal to own for more than one hundred years, they are rarely used in the commission of a crime,” he said. “In one California study that covered a ten-year period, suppressors were used in only one-tenth of one percent of all homicides. Suppressors are not preferred by criminals. As the National Shooting Sports Foundation points out, this is ‘likely due to the fact that they do not silence firearms like in the movies, they are ineffective on revolvers, they prevent the proper function of most semiautomatic handguns without the addition of a special piston system and they make firearms longer and heavier, which makes them more difficult to conceal.'”

Suppressors protect the hearing of shooters, but are of almost no value to criminals or mass shooters.

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), is sure to attempt to filibuster this bill, but Republicans hold a 52-48 majority. There are also ten Democrats up for reelection in 2018 who come from states carried by Trump.

About the author

Tim Brown

Tim Brown is an author and Editor at FreedomOutpost.com, husband to his wife, father of 10, jack of all trades, Christian and lover of liberty. He resides in the U.S. occupied Great State of South Carolina. Tim is also an affiliate for the brand new Joshua Mark 5 AR/AK hybrid semi-automatic rifle.